Tested were two elaborations of research design which were implemented to explain inconsistent findings concerning levels of father involvement in child rearing when the mother is employed. The first elaboration was to study separate dimensions of fathering participation, rather than treating it as a unitary factor. The second elaboration was to use maternal employment status to classify one-earner and two-earner families, rather than to treat maternal employment as an independent variable. Subjects in this study were 70 two-parent non-Black families, each having a 6-year-old child and a father who was employed full-time. Findings indicated that father involvement in child rearing had stronger correlates in the two-earner sample than in the one-earner sample, supporting the conclusion that one-earner and two-earner families should be treated as separate populations within which different factors may influence paternal involvement. In addition, father involvement in routine child care and in play with the child had different correlates. Generally, study results showed that weaker and less accurate findings would have resulted from using an overall measure of paternal child rearing participation and an analysis strategy that combined both family types. (RH)

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